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Last year the manufacturer AVM launched the high-end FRITZ!Box 7590 router, a well-rounded device with an outstanding performance. We had the opportunity to do a thorough review of the FRITZ!Box 7590 at RedesZone. Today we bring you the review of its little sibling, the FRITZ!Box 7530, which has the same design and the same FRITZ!OS, although in a smaller size in order to reduce its price to €150. Do you want to see what we got out of this device?

Main characteristics of the AVM FRITZ!Box 7530

This new router has the same outstanding features of the high-end AVM FRITZ!Box 7590, such as FRITZ!OS and Wi-Fi Mesh support. The FRITZ!Box 7530 is smaller and cheaper than the FRITZ!Box 7590, as we can get it for around €150.

This router’s main feature is that it is dual-band (AC1300) and has MU-MIMO support to make the most out of the network while on the 5 GHz band. We can get up to 400 Mbps on the 2.4 GHz band thanks to the 802.11n standard (Wi-Fi 4), and we can get up to 867 Mbps thanks to the 802.11ac standard (Wi-Fi 5). The FRITZ!Box 7530 has two internal 2T2R MIMO antennas for each band. The router has a physical WPS button to connect wireless devices easily without having to type in a password. Besides, we also get a QR code that will allow us to connect smartphones easily. FRITZ!OS provides a lot of options for wireless security.Continue reading “FRITZ!Box 7530 review: an AC1300 router with Gigabit ports”

Microsoft keeps introducing changes to Windows 10 to simplify it and unify settings little by little. The company keeps removing elements from the Control Panel and adding them to Settings. Now it is the turn for the Volume Mixer to change locations after more than 20 years.

The Volume Mixer as we know it will bid farewell next year

Microsoft introduced changes to the Sound settings with the April 2018 Update, changing some of the settings and removing the section from the Control Panel. This has caused issues to some users who need to access the Volume Mixer, forcing them to create a shortcut on the Desktop so they can easily open it.

Thanks to the Volume Mixer, we can adjust the volume of different programs and apps individually and easily. Up until now, a Win32 app (located in C:\Windows\System32\SndVol.exe) is run when we open the Volume Mixer.

The Cupertino-based company recently unveiled the new generation of Mac computers and the new Apple T2 Security Chip. It is a co-processor responsible for powering security features, including Touch ID. Even if Apples stays mum about it, this chip enables the secure boot on Apple’s new laptops, and it sets restrictions for installing Linux.So, we will not be able to install Linux distros on latest-gen Mac laptops.

As we said above, the new Apple T2 security chip, which is featured on Apple’s next-gen laptops, blocks Linux from booting by default. With this new hardware setup, only macOS and Windows 10 are allowed to boot as OS. However, users are allowed to disable secure boot, which basically should avoid performing additional checks at boot, opening the door to unsupported OS like Linux. As of now, disabling secure boot does not change anything: Linux cannot be booted.

Has Apple stagnated? In just a month the company has lost around 200 billion in capitalization. Although it is not something to write home about, it certainly generates tension on the market. A few days ago Apple stated that it would stop releasing sale figures, or at least the exact figures of units sold. So, we will not be told how many iPhone have been sold. Instead, the company will disclose revenue and other relevant information to investors and the market. The latest market share figures shed a light on the polemic decision.

The guys at MovilZona have Apple’s exact unit sales data in the last few years. The change can be seen there. In Q4, the Cupertino-based company sold 46.9 million iPhones in contrast to last year’s 46.7 million. The variation is small and it points to stagnation. However, revenue increased around 29%. Apple’s ability to increase iPhone sales is failing while revenue is soaring. Selling units worldwide is getting complicated, but prices have gone up considerably.

Apple’s dip in sales is due to Europe despite revenue growth: the numbers hurt the Cupertino-based company

It has been four years since Facebook bought the messaging app WhatsApp. Sooner or later, that was clearly going to affect users, and it seems the time for it has finally come.

Although WhatsApp had always promised the app would remain ad-free, the app’s privacy policy was modified after the purchase, possibly opening the door to this type of services in the future.

Last year, Brian Acton, one of WhatsApp’s cofounders, revealed that Facebook had already started thinking about using ads. Now after hearing many rumors and enjoying a nice ad-free time, Chris Daniels, WhatsApp’s Vice President, has finally announced we will start seeing ads.Continue reading “WhatsApp will start showing adds in 2019”

Encrypting pour files is one of the most widely used methods to protect them, especially on smartphones and laptops that can easily get stolen. For example, Windows has a tool called BitLocker that lets us do precisely that. It lets us encrypt the entire drive so no one has access to our files without the password. However, according to a new study, this encryption method might not be useful at all.

Yesterday night the guys at HardZone were telling us how several researchers managed to bypass the hardware-based encryption of several SSDs that were using BitLocker, being able to easily steal the files stored on the storage units without needing a password.

Security researchers were able to show this encryption issue by using Crucial and Samsung’s SSDs, although they believe many other manufacturers might be affected by this encryption flaw. Whereas Samsung’s SSD was almost protected against the issue, Crucial’s was a mess because the master password that protects the encryption password was just an empty string, it does not exist, so anyone can bypass it.Continue reading “Do you use your SSD’s encryption? Maybe your files are not as safe as you think”

Smartphone batteries have become manufacturers’ unfulfilled promise. In the past few years, we have seen how the industry has focused on improving several key aspects like displays, raw performance and cameras, but batteries have always been forgotten about.

This has led us to a complicated situation: we have smartphones capable of providing great performance and high-quality photos but that are incapable of being used a whole day. The problem is definitely more evident with each new generation, which has been confirmed by The Washington Post with a chart comparing the battery life of several phones of different generations.

The chart speaks for itself. Every smartphone on it has been tested under the same conditions: a single full battery charge under constant web browsing until it is depleted. Curiously, the phone with the best result is the iPhone XR, a phone with an IPS display.Continue reading “Batteries: smartphones’ unfulfilled promise”